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“Thanks! Heey, is Nii-san going shopping? Ah, it’s Goshujin-sama from now on, right!”

The slave dealer was like that as well, now with his problem child gone, he just looked like it couldn’t be helped even if he barely profited at all.

I’m happy that negotiations finished quickly.

After paying the fifty silver, as well as after the contract magic was completed, I took the chance to buy her clothes while I was at it.

A dress and underwear for a silver coin.

“Come to think of it, I haven’t asked your name huh. What is it?”

“Huh? What’re you sayin’, slaves get their names from Goshujin-sama y’know? Yah, Meat-senpai ?”

“Really?”

“Eh? You didn’ know? It’s always like that. Since a night attendant could have the same one as their mom by chance, it gets thrown away no matter how beautiful it is when becomin’ one.”

Ah, I get it.

“… Well, you don’ really go and forget your real one, you want me to answer with the name I had before becomin’ a slave? … Aah, but I wanna new name after gettin’ bought. Can’t I?”

“Hmm. What was your name before you were bought?”

“Hmm? Weeell, I was also called [Meat] yah?”

She licked her fingers, as though she recalled the taste of something.

… I wonder if it’s the ‘thing’ she bit off? The second I realized that, I took a sharp breath.

Hmm. So Meat is a popular slave name then huh? Like a dog being Pochi and a cat being Tama.

“Using that name would be confusing huh. Right then… what’s your favorite thing to eat? Then your name will be taken from foods… like Apple or Meat Skewer?”

“Setting aside Apple I’d like to refrain from Meat Skewer… how ’bout Melon? Aaah, won’t you buy me some melons? I wanna eat ’em.”

“I’ll get you some to eat later if you still want to.”

“Really!? Wooow I’ll do my best~”

She laughed like she wasn’t a slave… umm, miss nameless.

“Ah, right. Then how ’bout [Ichika]?”

“Un? What’s its meaning?”

“It’s a name related to the god of food. The god called Ishidaka is the goddess of the sea, though I don’t see one around here. Well, mixing in salt, seasoning from the sea, you get Ichika. That work?”

As for why it turns into Ichika when you mix it with salt(shio), well, that’s probably a bug with the translation function. Am I getting used to it?

“Well, Ichika is good. I’ll be relying on you from now on.”

“Hehehe, take care of me ?”

Ichika, formerly known as miss nameless. We shook hands again.

However, I saw Ichika looking somewhere when we were shaking hands.

… When I followed her line of sight, it was the grilled meat skewers stall.

*

With each of us eating the meat skewers held in our hands, we went to the adventurer guild.

“Hmm? I thought this way lead to the adventurer guild?”

“Yeah, I need to report about commission we finished earlier today.”

“So Goshujin-sama is an adventurer? What rank? D? C? Or maybe B?”

“F-rank. I just became one the other day.”

“Haah, F-rank? Yet you bought me with that much money… are you a Noble-sama or merchant or something?”

“Well, it’s a long story.”

She didn’t deny me with something like ‘No way!’. I already understood she was a flexible person, but Ichika really was a bargain.

“Ah, does Ichika also want to register as an adventurer? Having ID would be convenient.”

“Ehh? Ah, I wonder… starting over from G… well it’s okay. Then will you lend five silver for the registration fee? I’ll pay it back with my body.”

“It’s repayment. Ichika’s price was originally sixty, but it went down thanks to you… half the difference is reasonable compensation.”

“Pu–, ahaha! Reasonable compensation he says! It’s common sense that slaves don’ get compensated y’know? Well, it’s okay. I’ll take it out of principle, thanks.”

Ichika’s laugh showed her teeth. It was a pretty good smile, she’ll probably be popular as the inn’s receptionist like that.

So then, we arrived back at the adventurer guild.

The usual Receptionist-san was at the counter when we went there.

“… Oh, you sure didn’t take your time buying one. Moreover, a human, and big…”

Receptionist-san spoke as she looked at a certain area. Though some people felt the bigger the better, I think anything is fine. Legs are more essential.

“Along with reporting that we completed the commission, this one… Ichika, please register her to the guild.”

“Yes, here are your twenty copper coins for the two commissions… another name with no sense to it. Well then, I’ll interview her for now… come this way.”

I also went with Ichika as her owner.

… Ichika huh, so that was a name with no sense to it either…? Maybe I should get someone else to do the naming?

Entering the area that Meat and I had also been interviewed in before, she asked similar questions.

I understood her personal history as follows.

Birthplace: Pavuera (This seems to be a port city on the other side of Tsuia Mountain)

Strong Points: Tasting, poison tasting, eating. Also scouting on occasion. [1]

Motives: Eating delicious food

Notes: Former C-rank adventurer

“Eh, you’re a former adventurer? Moreover, C-rank?”

“Yah. I don’t have any skills though. Skill scrolls are expensive yah? I’d rather buy stuff to eat than stuff like that y’know?”

“If that’s how it is, can’t be helped.”

It was an easy reason to understand. At least, for someone like me who similarly aimed to bury myself in sleep.

… Eh? Why not cut into food expenses to buy a better scroll you’ve set your sights on you ask?

That’s the reasoning of someone who wants to increase their rank. We have nothing to do with that.

Her general questioning finished, Receptionist-san wrote something down and spoke.

“I understand, I’ll issue you a guild card. However, since you have given up your previous name, you cannot be C-rank. Well, we’ll exempt you from G-rank and make you F-rank.”

“It’ll be easier if it’s that rank, thank you very much.”

“… By the way, how much was she?”

“I drove the price down nicely. Fifty silver coins.”

“That’s… quite the bargain, without a doubt.”

Receptionist-san sent me a dubious look. I-I didn’t do anything shady alright? Really, really.

I did get the silver coins from DP though… It seems that money issued from DP is taken as regular currency in the Imperial Capital, so there’s no problem… i-it’s not forgery so it should be okay…!

At any rate, I paid the five silver coin registry fee and received Ichika’s guild card.

I added Ichika to the party by her suggestion, so we headed for a place to rest with our new member.

As for today’s inn, it’s the one we stayed in before. The [Sleeping Songbird Pavilion]. To save money, we just got a single room. Ichika said she would prefer another meal than to rent a shed, so since she didn’t particularly have any problems with a single room, it was decided that we would sleep together in the same room.

Ah, the three meals were naturally three normal ones, not the slave meals. Eating that slave meal the other day was enough.

“Un, gettin’ a real meal to eat~. Happiness~.”

“So food’s that important to Ichika? I also get how you feel. I wanted an employee that feels good about their job after all.”

“Hooh, feels good? Meat-senpai’s complexion is nice too, when I look at her I just wanna pick her up, yah. There’s no complaints from me so long as you give me food.”

Somehow or another it seems that I also struck a bargain in that she’s also easy to handle.

Ichika was drinking up her vegetable soup, wiping the little bit of liquid left over in the dish with bread, eating everything.

Nothing left to waste. When she said, ‘Let me eat first, might be poisoned’, what she meant was that she would start even before me, her owner.

“Thanks for the food~, well, what now? Sleep?”

“Yeah. Ichika. You’ll have the bed.”

“Eh?”

Probably due to not being able to comprehend what I said, Ichika tilted her head to the side. Right, Ichika probably thought she’d be conceding the bed to me since there was only one in the room.

I took out my [Futon] from [Storage] and laid it onto the floor.

“Meat and I will sleep here.”

“Wai—! The heck! You’re usin’ a substitute in such a high class inn. Wooow, so this is the difference between senpai and me… wait, you used [Storage], isn’t that an expensive scroll?”

“… Just like Ichika won’t yield when it comes to food, I also won’t yield when it comes to this. Remember, never obstruct my sleep alright?”

“I definitely got it. I absolutely won’ disturb you other than really bad situations… I pledge it on breakfast.”

She pledged it on something really reliable huh. I nodded in satisfaction.

Footnotes:

The same kanji used for ‘Poison Tasting’ also effectively means ‘Eating Before’. Return

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